A known forming machine for making such components requires a relatively massive surrounding frame to withstand the pressures applied during a press operation at a press station of the machine. The force required to press the paper pulp or slurry into the required shape at the press station may be in the order of 20 tons or so and is usually provided by hydraulics. Consequently, the frame needs to be extremely strong to continually withstand the very considerable forces involved and the cost of the massive frame tends to add very considerably to the overall costs. The cost of the frame will depend upon the size of the machine itself but, typically, may be in the order of .English Pound.135,000 or so. There may be other disadvantages of the machine related to providing the required pressing force; such disadvantages may relate e.g. to the additional bulk of the machine (i.e. hydraulic ram) and/or to additional noise or inconvenience of operation or even undue inefficiency. Furthermore, the press station is normally pre-set to press the article being formed under a particular pressure to a particular thickness. Thus, it tends to be disadvantageous that, since the machine has been preset to operate at a particular pressure to press a particular article to a certain thickness, there is little control to vary the applied pressure and/or thickness of the article (without resetting press dies) more particularly in a controlled way to vary the quality and/or characteristics of the article in an accurately predictable manner. Additionally, it may be that the temperature required for drying the pressed article is higher than need be the case and/or the drying time may be longer than need be the case. At least in some instances, known press stations may not be able to produce the required shape of an article accurately enough (e.g. a 1.degree. or 2.degree. angle on a product 100 millimeters deep). Furthermore, the actual finish on every surface of the article may not be suitably consistent (e.g. the inside surface of an egg box formed from paper pulp is usually irregular and not as aesthetically pleasing as the exterior).
It is believed that known forming production methods for articles made from paper or fibre may not provide an article which is of a similar quality to that which can be produced from plastics or polystyrene (at least in some respects) and this tends to adversely affect the marketability of articles formed from paper/fibre.